Two major players in provenance authentication, Everledger, a leading emerging technology enterprise, and Shping, an industry-standards based track and trace cloud platform, have today announced a first-to-market collaboration that will see the pair build a GS1 EPCIS standard track-and-trace platform for product information using blockchain.

Their strategic partnership was formally made public during the UNLOCK Blockchain Forum at the Ritz Carlton Hotel DIFC. The UNLOCK Blockchain Forum is one of the biggest events of its kind to take place in the region. Both parties attended the event organized by the Al-Iktissad Wal-Aamal to shed light on the blockchain concept and discuss how to successfully implement blockchain projects across different industries.

Shping’s current platform incorporates a front-end smartphone application to extend traceability and authentication capability up to and beyond the point of purchase. This new collaborative platform with Everledger will instantly recognise a trading partner publisher as an authorised party, automating the current manual process that requires each new subscriber to be individually validated before granting rights to publish data onto the blockchain.

“By applying GS1 identification standards like Global Location Number (GLN) and Global Company Prefix (GCP), Shping and Everledger have developed new technology that allows publishers of the traceability data to be instantly verified,” said Shping Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Gennady Volchek.

“Being able to provide provenance and product authentication empowers brands with a tremendous point of difference. Encouraging consumer awareness, interest and the pursuit of this information was the last piece of the puzzle.”

Everledger Founder & CEO Leanne Kemp said, “We are excited to continue leading the way with innovative collaborations to track verified provenance. Our technical integration and commercial collaboration with Shping is well-aligned with our purpose of building trust along the entire supply chain. It will enhance the informed consumer experience and greatly drive strong consumer and industry confidence in brands.”

“This marks Everledger’s foray into the mass consumer retail segment and a strong first step to take in driving such a progressive development within the retail industry through the convergence of our technologies,” she added.

The partnership also benefits industry, commercial and consumer users of the Shping ecosystem, with Shping Security, Shping Marketing and Shping App users set to benefit from a number of new enhancements.

Brands using the Shping Security module for track and trace will now have the option to automatically upload their information to the Everledger blockchain with the Shping node playing a bridging role to the blockchain. Furthermore, any verified company can become a part of the Everledger blockchain (by creating a node) and that company’s product information will be accessible through Shping.

Meanwhile, all products recorded onto the blockchain by the Everledger platform, will soon be authenticated by the Shping App. This allows buyers to soon be able to confirm a product’s authenticity, provenance and qualities by simply entering a serial number into the Shping App.

The collaboration plans to scale an onboarding of GS1 members in countries where Shping already has an integration and strategic partnership – Australia, Singapore, Russia, Malta and Azerbaijan.

To market to consumers through Shping, brands using the platform must have a positive balance of Shping Coins. The only way to acquire these at present will be through the Token Sale, where Shping Coins will be put on sale directly for one time only.

The countdown for the Shping Token presale is already well underway with the official launch date set for 00:00 (CET) Monday, 22 January 2018 for 30 days or until sold out. (See below for more info.)